The messages in the three Academy Awards contenders are no
accident. All were produced and financed by Participant Media, a
pioneer among a group of companies aiming to advance social
missions through movies.

Participant was founded in 2004 by billionaire and former
eBay President Jeff Skoll. The company's credits range from Al
Gore's climate-change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and
Steven Spielberg's historical drama "Lincoln" to "Spotlight," a
best picture winner about journalists who exposed a cover-up of
abuse by Catholic priests.

"We often gravitate toward stories of ordinary people doing
extraordinary things, becoming leaders for change in their own
and others' lives," Participant Media Chief Executive David
Linde said by email.

"Roma" is a prime example, Linde said. The black-and-white
drama, which was distributed by Netflix Inc, revolves
around Cleo, an indigenous Mexican housekeeper who displays
courage in the face of serious challenges.

It will compete at the Oscars on Sunday for best picture
with "Green Book," a Participant movie released by Comcast
Corp's Universal Pictures about a black pianist on a
1962 concert tour of the segregated U.S. South.

"RBG," about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
is up for best documentary.

Participant's movies are paired with off-screen activism.
For "Roma," the company joined the National Domestic Workers
Alliance to push for labor protections and supported the launch
of an app that provides benefits to house cleaners such as paid
time off.

COMPELLING, SUCCESSFUL

Scott Budnick, who quit his career producing comedies such
as "The Hangover" to advocate for prison reform, is also working
to spark change through compelling and commercially successful
entertainment.

His new company, One Community, is aiming to raise $10
million to mount a year-long campaign around the January 2020
release of the film "Just Mercy," a biographical drama starring
Michael B. Jordan as a lawyer fighting to free a man wrongly
convicted of murder.

The campaign is expected to kick off within the next two
months and will be designed to prompt changes on issues such as
the death penalty and juvenile sentencing, Budnick said in an
interview.

One Community, which is co-financing "Just Mercy" with AT&T
Inc's Warner Bros., "is the branch between philanthropy
and politics to the entertainment community," he said.

While many philanthropists and politicians want to tackle
problems such as poverty or homelessness, "they are never
aligned with a major studio that may be spending $20, $40 or $60
million to sell that issue to the public," Budnick said.

"We're here to be that aligner," he said.

A co-producer of "Just Mercy" is Macro, a company committed
to developing TV shows and movies that represent a broad range
of stories featuring people of color. Past films include the
critically acclaimed dramas "Fences" and "Mudbound."

Macro was founded by former talent agent Charles King and is
funded by organizations that support the company's mission,
including the Ford Foundation that invested $5 million.

"Affecting which stories are told, by whom, and from what
perspective, is an extremely powerful way to change the
discourse in this country," said Cara Mertes, director of a Ford
Foundation initiative called JustFilms. "For us, this is social
justice impact."

Budnick's One Community is funded by a variety of investors,
including Endeavor Content and Philadelphia 76ers co-owner
Michael Rubin.

It is set up as a "double bottom line" company to generate
profits and social change, Budnick said. Executives are working
with social scientists to develop metrics to gauge success.

That framework is not for every investor, Budnick said.

If someone is looking for a return of 10 times their
investment, "they could go to Twitter, Uber, Instagram," Budnick
said. "This is not that. This is a company modeled to make
money, and it's modeled to make impact."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine
Editing by Paul Tait)